Charoen Cable partners with Fiber One for fibre-optic network

BANGKOK-BASED Charoen Cable TV has joined forces with Fiber One, a provider of fibre-optic networks, to expand its subscriber base to 1 million |by the end of this year, from 600,000 currently.

The cable-TV operator struck the partnership after Advance Info Service (AIS) announced plans to offer a pay-TV service via its fibre-optic network and mobile broadband service.

Wichit Aur-Areevorakul, chief executive officer of Charoen Ying (8888) Co, the operator of Charoen Cable TV, said yesterday that to help manage the cost of expanding the fibre-optic network, his company decided to team up with Fiber One, which is a leading provider of digital platforms.

Under this partnership, Fiber One will allocate some slots of its fibre-optic network for Charoen Cable TV. In return, the pay-TV service called Fiber TV will attract target customers for Fiber One.

Wichit hopes that this agreement will bring in 400,000 new subscribers for his company, which currently has 600,000.

Kitti Kosinsakul, chief executive officer of Fiber One, said his company also hoped to grow together with this new business partner by attracting new broadband users to his network in the provinces.

“Charoen Cable TV is the first pay-TV operator to use our fibre network, while existing clients are in the telecommunication sector, namely AIS Fiber, 3BB, True Corp and Planet Communications Asia,” Kitti said.

Charoen Cable TV is also seeking other new partners to reach a wider audience upcountry on top of its stronghold in Greater Bangkok.

Wichit said his company had become a partner with CAT Telecom to provide some pay-TV programmes via that network. He is also talking with other cable-TV operators in each region on forming a cluster of cable-TV networks to share infrastructure and operating costs.

“Although the pay-TV business looks like getting tougher after AIS announced it would offer a similar service, there is more room to grow for local cable-TV operators in the middle-to-low-tier segment like us,” he said.